Category: Listening

Unknown is scary.

It is scary because it is out of our control.

It is scary because we can’t plan for it.

It is scary because it is unknown.

When I asked Jesus to come and live in my heart as a 4-year-old, I had no idea what kind of journey He would take me on.

When I said “yes” to the call to pastoral ministry back in 2005, I had no idea what kind of journey He would take me on.

When I said “yes” to follow Jesus again this morning (as I do every day) I had no idea what kind of journey He would take me on.

And, sometimes, that is scary.

But each time I say “yes” to the Lord, I am also saying, “I trust You.”

Sometimes when I say that, I feel more like the father of the boy with the evil spirit when he said to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” in Mark 9:24, but I say it anyway.

Because even though the unknown is scary, if I am following Jesus and answering His call, it is good.

Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

His plans are better than anything I can plan on my own. His ways are more complete than anything I can come up with.

Which means that unknown is good.

I can’t run ahead if I don’t know the way to go. And that is good.

So in the midst of the unknown, today and everyday, I trust, I follow, I learn, I go. Whatever that means. Wherever that leads.

Unknown is good.

And I am following my good God into the unknown.

I am reading a book right now called Sifted: Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges, and Disappointments by Wayne Cordeiro. I am finding myself highlighting a number of places in this book, both as things I resonate with and things that I want to remember as I am learning and growing – sometimes through the hard stuff. One of the sections I read last week talked about the role of church in our lives and particularly, what we should NOT be expecting of the church. Here is what he had to say:

It may sound strange, but there is a sense in which I can truthfully say that the church does not exist to help people, to solve their problems and alleviate their disappointments. Not ultimately, at least. The primary reason the church exists is to worship God and to point people to Christ, the ultimate solution to their problems. We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ, and I strongly believe that the Bible teaches us that the church is called to help people in practical ways. But our work should draw attention to the one who has saved us, the one who has solved our problems and given us hope in place of our disappointment. We point people to Christ, and we do ourselves a disservice any time we position ourselves as the ultimate answer to people’s problems.

• The church will not always make you feel comfortable.
• The church will not be the answer to your every need.
• You will sometimes not like what happens at church.
• You might leave a service unhappy once in a while, particularly if you are seeing your sin in light of God’s righteousness.
• If you are a single person, going to church will not guarantee you a spouse.
• Going to church will not guarantee that your children will not rebel.
• Going to church is not the answer to all your financial problems.
• You might not get along with everybody you meet at church.
• You might hate the color of the carpet, the taste of the coffee, and the shirt your pastor wears.

In our consumer culture, many times I think people choose churches based how good it makes them feel, how well-organized the children’s programming is, what the church looks like, what the people in the church look like, or some other non-spiritual expectation of what church should be or how well the church meets their needs. But those are not the things that should be the deciding factor for attending church. The ultimate question should be, “Is this church pointing the way to Jesus?” If the answer to that question is “yes,” then that should be enough, and our next question should be, “how can I be a part of pointing people to Jesus?”

Just some of my thoughts today as I continue to follow Jesus and hopefully point others to Him.

What do you think?

This passage of scripture is rolling around in my head these days. What makes the soil of our hearts hard? Where do the rocks come from? What thorns are choking the word? Is the soil of my heart ready and willing to accept the seed and allow it to grow and produce a crop?

Mark 4 (NIV)
The Parable of the Sower

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

¹⁰ When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹² so that,

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

Yesterday, I received an unexpected and very special gift.

I was in the Loft for Kids Church, but wasn’t teaching. A friend of mine was teaching a lesson about using drawing in prayer. As she was preparing in the days leading up to Sunday, she asked the Lord who she could pray for in her teaching example for the kids. She said that she was immediately given my name, followed by what to pray for (wisdom) and a scripture (Psalm 1:3 “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”).

She then led the kids through a drawn prayer of her own, and then invited the kids to do their own drawn prayers on post-it notes and add them to her drawing.

This blessed me in so many ways.

• That the Lord revealed something to my friend about my need for wisdom as I listen to and discern what His call on my life looks like.
• That the Lord used these kids that I love to pray prayers for me.
• That the Lord orchestrated this in such a way that I was there to receive this blessing of prayer, on a Sunday that I wasn’t teaching.

I am so grateful to the Lord for these blessings and to my friend for being sensitive to the Lord’s prompting.

May we all be listening for His voice and promptings to bless others today – whether that be through prayer or something else.